Members of a Yorkshire branch of the Women's Institute cause controversy when they pose nude for a charity calendar.

Bullied at school and ignored and abused at home by his indifferent mother and older brother, Billy Casper, a 15-year-old working-class Yorkshire boy, tames and trains his pet kestrel falcon whom he names Kes. Helped and encouraged by his English teacher and his fellow students, Billy finally finds a positive purpose to his unhappy existence.

When Gerry Broadbent, in search of his roots, takes his fiancée Nita home to Brighouse, they find that the picture is not quite as he painted.